People to people; Hiroshima Mon Amour

The Japanese Embassy recently celebrated Philippine-Japan friendship with a wonderful display of Japanese art and culture. Almost at the same time, by sheer coincidence I was in touch with the Aguinaldo family and a few academics with a plan to revisit his role in the Philippine war of independence against the US. Aguinaldo has not been given the place of honor he deserves.

Former Prime Minister Cesar Virata who is a nephew of the legendary hero, said there was a book written on Aguinaldo and the war by a Japanese, but that it was awaiting translation.

Minister Shimizu Shinsuke told me the author was Takao Watanabe, former branch manager of the Export Import Bank of Japan in Manila and he had already read it. In a couple of days it was as if bits and pieces were converging to give focus to a deeper understanding when we celebrate the friendship between the peoples of our two countries.

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Then when I thought it was the end of the story, Ambeth Ocampo, known for popularizing Philippine history announced that he would give a lecture on Japan in Philippine History. The title of the lecture: “Before Japayuki: Japan in Philippine History.” Ambeth, it turns out was a Japanophile. Indeed he has lived there off and on and very recently returned from a fellowship at Sophia University.

“Many Filipinos are surprised to learn that something as iconic as halo-halo might have Japanese roots or that the residence of the Philippine Ambassador in Tokyo was owned by the family of John Lennon’s widow Yoko Ono. The story of Philippines-Japan relations is long and complex, like halo-halo it is composed of many ingredients. It is a story that precedes our horrendous experience with the Japanese during World War II, it goes further than the love of Rizal and O-sei in the 19th century. Going back to the Japanese settlement in the 16th century known as Plaza Dilao provides a context to the 21st century with a new generation of Filipinos born and raised in Japan.”

It is typical of him to see esoterica that we might so easily take for granted. “Living in Japan made me see connections between the Philippines and Japan in everyday things like: kakigori, janken pon papel de japan etc.”

He was in Japan as a young boy and remains awed by the sense of nature and aesthetic in the Japanese.

So if you are anywhere near Ayala Museum on August 25 at 3 p.m. make sure you drop by and listen to Ambeth. “I want people to see Japan under our skin.” I also lived and studied in Japan and was thrilled that I share Ambeth’s enthusiasm for the country.

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Just as there are happy thoughts about Japan, there are also sad memories of the war. Too few knew that last week the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki was commemorated. (It is the cover photo for my FB account this week).

I chose two articles, one by Phil Strongman writing for The Independent and Walter Young for the Japan Times.

Phil Strongman writes: “An American B-29 bomber had dropped an atom bomb on Hiroshima. People were literally vaporised by a light ‘“brighter than a thousand suns.” A firestorm and 600 mph winds sucked the remaining air out of the downtown district. Soon a mushroom cloud spiralled into the stratosphere, and under it 140,000 civilians lay dead.”

Such a tragedy generates an even greater tragedy — that of forgetting what it was about. (from Alain Renais’ Hiroshima Mon Amour). I hope that by excerpting from these two articles we will remember the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

“Apologists for these events have used two arguments. These attacks were necessary because Japan wouldn’t surrender without them, and because a land invasion against Japan’s disciplined troops would have caused 300,000 US casualties or more. The bombing also kept the Soviets out of Japan and helped speed the end of the war. This thought now dominates — anyone disagreeing is “a soft peacenik”.

Strongman cites that General Eisenhower opposed it, “Japan was already defeated… dropping the bomb was completely unnecessary.” During this time Japan put out peace feelers: on 25 July Japan tried to get envoys to Russia, carrying Imperial letters which read, in part: “His Majesty… mindful of the fact that the present war daily brings greater evil and sacrifice of the peoples… desires from his heart that it may be quickly terminated.

But as long as England and the US insist upon unconditional surrender the Japanese Empire has no alternative but to fight on… for the honour and existence of the Motherland …”

“And, of course, post-Nagasaki, the US did grant the condition that the Emperor be left alone. So if America could agree to this in August, why not in July or even June? Why not end the war earlier?”

He makes the disturbing accusation that “US stubbornness only makes sense if it’s seen for what it really is: an excuse to delay peace long enough to test the bomb on real cities. These centers had been left virtually free of heavy bombing for just this purpose, so the effect of atomic destruction could be seen on “virgin targets.” This intentionally prolonged the war for the sole purpose of testing the atomic bomb on real cities he adds.

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Walter Young for Japan Times sees Hiroshima as a turning point on how we think about war. “The atomic bombing of Hiroshima represented the single most violent act in the history of mankind. Those 60,000 people were killed almost instantly by the push of a button on an aircraft flying over the city. The killing of that many people; by the numbers — per second and per minute — has never been equaled before or after.

Although all human atrocities pale in comparison with the holocaust, the instantaneous destruction of Hiroshima, along with a good portion of its population, stands alone as the most hideous example of the use of technology in modern warfare.”

Here’s the lesson: “That strategy of killing people for what they might do has become an integral part of the rhetoric of our foreign policy today.” Killing 60,000 people should not be thought merely as unfortunate consequence of war.

“What we can do has taken precedence over who we should be. A sense of awareness should be created about the fact that there exists the deliberate killing of civilians as a strategy of warfare and the growing tendency to accept it as a natural and normal consequence of war.”